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There are some things that parents can’t help but pass on to their kids. A distinctive nose, perhaps, or a deathly allergy to walnuts. Philip Larkin famously wrote that “misery” was handed down between the generations – an inheritance that “deepens like a coastal shelf”. It’s not all doom and gloom, of course: we also inherit things such as empathy, money (if you’re lucky), and table manners. But what about taste?
